July 05, 2014

Binge Watching - No, not "Breaking Bad," But HBO's "Carnivale"

The biggest binge watch this weekend is AMC's "Breaking Bad." But a friend with proven psychic powers invited me to hunker down and view some of the 24 episodes of HBO's "Carnivale."

Set in The Great Depression and Dust Bowl it resonated, of course, with our own recent desperate times. During periods of despair, people eagerly embrace mysticism.

The two lead characters are white-trash healer Ben Hawkins and rogue minister Brother Justin Crowe. They are doubly attractive to audiences because the two have their own demons.

After his mother dies Hawkins takes up with a carnival. The show-on-the-road is stocked with both gifted and troubled human beings. Crowe uses his powers to defy conventional authorities to do good. When they get in his way, he wills them dead. You bet, they die.

The series, started in 2003, never really got the following of "The Sopranos." It went off the air in 2005. It could become a cult for binge viewers because of its dabbling in the occult. The pain of the 2008 crash is still so much with us. We're up for miracles. In addition, the characters are the kind shaped by personal trauma and a game that is rigged against them. Sounds familiar?